Finance Minister P Chidambaram’s promise to converge the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS) with other schemes in drought-hit areas may remain a promise. For, the Ministry of Rural Development says it has no special convergence plan tailored to the needs of drought-hit states.
Convergence of NREGS has invited criticism from the civil society, as it is seen as a back-door effort to dilute the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) and to divert funds meant for wages.
The rural development ministry, under Jairam Ramesh, has steered clear of the topic and has abandoned it in his NREGA version-2 guidelines. Ramesh, who recently made a tour to three drought-hit states, said he was not aware of any such convergence plans .
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What the ministry instead proposes to do is to enhance the number of days of employment provided under NREGA from 100 to 150 days in all drought-affected blocks.
The ministry’s proposal to relax the number of work days in NREGA is expected to get the nod from the Empowered Group of Ministers (EGoM) on drought.
During his visit to the drought-affected states of Maharashtra, Gujarat and Karnataka, Ramesh had assured these states that more funds under NREGA would be made available to enhance the number of work days to 150.
All blocks which have more than 50 per cent rainfall deficit would benefit from the relaxed norms under NREGA, the ministry said.
As for convergence with other schemes, officials said the convergence guidelines drawn in 2009 could apply, and the emphasis could be on drought prevention works in such areas — though there has been no such directive from the ministry on this.
When the guidelines on convergence were drawn in 2009, under then Rural Development Minister C P Joshi, the ministry was accused of using convergence for diverting NREGA funds for works possible through other funds.
Activists like Jean Dreze and Aruna Roy have staunchly opposed convergence.
Another school of thought, represented by activists like K S Gopal, has favoured convergence of NREGA, especially with schemes under the Ministry of Agriculture. Gopal, however, says that convergence can be a back-door effort for fund diversion.
The finance ministry would certainly approve of it to achieve fiscal balance, said Gopal, a researcher and development economist at Tata Institute of Social Sciences. He was earlier a member of the Employment Guarantee Council formed under NREGA.
Though the two ministries agreed on convergence in 2009, the plan has not gone beyond a few pilot districts. Convergence has failed even within the rural development ministry's different departments, said Gopal.
The new guidelines or NREGA 2, which are yet to be notified, would expand the number of works and in this some convergence might be achieved.
Nikhil De, who was part of the group that drafted the new guidelines, said convergence had never happened, as no ministry or department is willing to work under NREGA guidelines. They just want NREGA funds.
